UK Government Pledge to Invest into Youth Unemployment

14/11/2012

The UK government announced a series of measures to prioritise youth employment including a £60 million commitment to getting more vulnerable young people into work, a boost to Apprenticeships and radical reforms to transform vocational education.

The measures aim to tackle some of the long-term structural barriers that stop some young people from getting a job and starting their career. A new £10 million a year innovation fund will be launched aimed at the community and voluntary sector to help in the drive to help young people find jobs.

The announcement follows pledges from over 100 large companies and tens of thousands of small companies around the country to offer work experience placements. In total the government will provide funding for up to 250,000 more apprenticeships over the next four years, and funding for 100,000 work placements over the next two years.

"There simply aren't enough jobs... and young people are being particularly hard hit."Stephen Timms Labour

The measures outlined in the Supporting youth employment paper are designed to ensure that young people have the opportunity to get work, to support economic growth, to advance their career prospects and encourage social mobility, and also to help fill some of the 500,000 vacancies currently in the job market.

Over the next three years, the government will invest £60 million to support the most vulnerable young people. They will:

-Provide more early access Work Programme places to vulnerable 18 year olds who are likely to be struggling to make the transition from education to work.

-Increase the capacity of Jobcentre Plus to support 16 and 17 year olds who are not in education, employment or training (NEET) to get them back into education, employment or training. This will include additional support to the 5,000 most disadvantaged 16 and 17 year olds claiming Jobseeker's Allowance, including access to work experience and work clubs

-provide a new £10m per annum innovation fund to give delivery organisations, in particular the voluntary and community sector, a real chance to develop innovative solutions to help disadvantaged people especially young people who are NEET.

-Provide a new £10m per annum innovation fund to give delivery organisations, in particular the voluntary and community sector, a real chance to develop innovative solutions to help disadvantaged people especially young people who are NEET.

Matt Ellis, Director of Jobs4.co.uk commented;

"We are pleased to see that the UK government has pledged to commit such a heavy level of investment to alleviate the ongoing issues regarding youth unemployment."